Fucked up Pictures

Yuka and I went to Hikone in Shiga Prefecture on October 19th and she just emailed me all of her pictures (I forgot my camera)............

your love it feels so good AND THAT WHAT TAKES ME HIGH

HIGHER THAN A (something something)

AND YOUR LOVE IT KEEPS ME ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

... sorry but the music in this internet cafe is BUMPIN'


Some of Yuka's pictures got all fucked up for some reason...

Hikone has a castle and some good restaurants but thats it. When we got out of the train station and looked at a map provided for tourists, it showed us how to get from the station to the castle and everything else was just erased off the map. I like the honesty. Dont waste your time guys: just see our castle and go home.

On our walk to the casle we passed a shoe store selling cheap bags of potatoes.

I've now seen two of Japan's four national treasure castles, so I guess I'll see the other two and check that off my to do list. We went to the castle's museum, got tea in the garden, and then saw the Donjon. We got dinner near the castle and went home. I guess that sounds boring, but we're both incredibly interesting and funny so it was a blast.

We stopped in a gift shop and they had a display of these good luck bears (I dont know what kind of animal its supposed to be, and Yuka didn't know the English word for what it is) that I've seen a million times but for some reason I had never noticed before how large the balls of the statues are. Its a smiling bear with one of those Vietnamese farmer hats on, but its got a huge cock and enormous balls. Its sack is larger than it's feet and maybe that's why its supposed to bring good luck...

So North Korea successfully tested its bomb. Congratulations, Korea. Talk has already started in this country about getting a bomb, but I dont think its serious yet. In addition to the bomb question, Japan's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, made changing the constitution's language a cornerstone of his platform. The 9th Amendment prevents Japan from using its military for anything other than self-defense. The constitutional debate was recently renewed when the US told Japan that it would play an important role in its own efforts in Iraq, despite Japan's constitutional restrictions. So Japan's role in Iraq was the first time that Japanese troops have been deployed outside of Japan since World War II (so says SOMETHING I read), and now with North Korea in possession of a nuke and throwing missles towards Japan, China growing as fast and aggressively as it is (see oil drilling in the Sea of Japan), and Japan now playing a leadership role in international politics (Japanese polticians wrote the language adopted by the UN in response to North Korea's nuke test) I guess things may be changing in Japan as well as the rest of Asia. None of this means anything to me because on a day-to-day basis nothing has changed. I still have to go to my boring job and I still drink Chuhi on the weekends.

Miss you all.